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STEL­LAR LINE-UP AN­NOUNCED FOR BRAY AIR DIS­PLAY

The top speed in mph of the Hawker Hunter, one of sev­eral air­craft an­nounced to take part in this year’s Bray Air Dis­play

OR­GAN­IS­ERS of this year’s Bray Air Dis­play have an­nounced de­tails of the 2014 event which will in­clude ‘ The Hunger,’ ‘ The Sablre,’ ‘ The Yaks,’ and ‘ The Vam­pires.’

The Ir­ish Avi­a­tion Author­ity and Bray Summerfest host the air dis­play which will take place on July 20.

Team Yakovlevs – or the Yaks, as they are af­fec­tion­ately known – are among those mak­ing their Bray de­but, hav­ing en­ter­tained mil­lions of people around the world with their pre­ci­sion for­ma­tion fly­ing.

Their Su­per 52 two-seater planes will be fol­lowed in close for­ma­tion by three sin­gle seater Yak 50 planes.

The Vam­pires, pi­loted by Kenneth Aarkvisla and Per ‘Smi­ley’ Stromme, will be fly­ing their jet fighters from the Sec­ond World War, ca­pa­ble of reach­ing top speeds of 548 miles per hour.

Mean­while, pi­lot Mark Lin­ney will be roar­ing over the skies of Bray in the Sabre, an Amer­i­can fighter jet best known for its high speeds and loud en­gines.

And the Hunter, flown by Jonathan Wha­ley, is a Bri­tish-made fighter from the 1950s, renowned for its loud en­gines, ma­noeu­vra­bil­ity and break­neck speeds.

‘Once again, Ire­land is at­tract­ing world­class pi­lots and air­craft to Bray for the coun­try’s big­gest free air show,’ said Dis­play Di­rec­tor Sé Pardy from Simtech Avi­a­tion.

‘We have sev­eral new acts mak­ing their de­but, but we will also be wel­com­ing crowd favourites back to Bray, with aerial ac­tion to en­ter­tain the whole fam­ily.’

In­tro­duced in 1949, the fa­mous MIG 15 was de­vel­oped by the Soviet Union and was the only air­craft to face the Sabre in com­bat. This loud, vin­tage plane will also be mak­ing its first ap­pear­ance at Bray.

The S-92 he­li­copter, op­er­ated by the Ir­ish Coast Guard, will also be wel­comed for the first time to Bray. Equipped for ded­i­cated search and res­cue (SAR) op­er­a­tions, it ser­vices Ire­land’s off­shore is­lands and pro­vides res­cue cover from Cork to Galway.

Other air­craft mak­ing their de­but in July in­clude the Stear­man 75 and the De­cathlon, a two-seater sports plane.

Fur­ther air­craft will be an­nounced for the dis­play over the com­ing weeks. For more in­for­ma­tion go to brayairdis­play.com.

Jonathan Wha­ley will fly his Hawker Hunter, renowned for its break­neck speed.